Parise, an alternate captain for the Minnesota Wild and USA Hockey stalwart, will captain the American hockey team at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Ryan Suter, Parise's teammate in Minnesota, and LA Kings captain Dustin Brown will serve as the alternates.

Other candidates, based on the five-man leadership committee, were David Backes of the St. Louis Blues and Ryan Callahan of the New York Rangers. Parise, though, wound up with the 'C.' It was him, remember, that scored to send the gold-medal game in Vancouver to overtime.

"You're looking for players and people who embody who you are and how you want to play on and off the ice," coach Dan Bylsma said. Bylsma's Pittsburgh Penguins were in the running to sign Parise when he was an unrestricted free agent in 2012. Before that, they were in a division with Parise's New Jersey Devils.

"Every time we played against Zach Parise, there has been a work ethic that never quits," Bylsma said. "A determination, an abrasiveness about (being) a hard-to-play-against player, and it's every time."

"I'm lucky enough to join a pretty elite list of players who have been captains of the United States," Parise said. Jamie Langenbrunner filled that role in 2010, when the U.S. won silver. He and Parise were teammates with the Devils, and Parise said he learned a great deal from him.

"Jamie is a type of guy, that he's not an overly vocal guy in the locker room, but you know that he's going to play hard and play the right way every game," Parise said. "What was unique about Jamie was that he was able to, as a captain, lead the same way when the team was winning as (when) the team was losing, and that's always a hard thing."